KPIs for Australian Public Mental Health Services: PI 04J – Average length of acute mental health inpatient stay, 2021
Indicator Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Indicator |
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Indicator type: | Indicator |
Short name: | MHS PI 04J: Average length of acute mental health inpatient stay, 2021 |
METEOR identifier: | 739878 |
Registration status: | Health!, Standard 17/12/2021 |
Description: | The average length of stay of in-scope overnight separations from state/territory acute admitted patient mental health care service units. NOTE: This specification has been adapted from the indicator Average length of acute mental health inpatient stay, 2020– (Service level) using terminology consistent with the National Health Data Dictionary. There are technical differences in the calculation methodologies between the Service level version and the Jurisdictional level version of this indicator due to different available data sources to construct this indicator. Caution should be taken to ensure the correct methodology is followed. |
Rationale: |
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Indicator set: |
Collection and usage attributes | |
Computation description: | Coverage/Scope: State/territory acute admitted patient mental health care service units in scope for reporting defined by the Mental Health Establishments National Minimum Data Set (NMDS). For jurisdictional level reporting the following separation and associated patient days are excluded:
Methodology:
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Computation: | Numerator ÷ Denominator |
Numerator: | Number of mental health care days for state/territory acute admitted patient mental health care service unit(s) occurring within the reference period. |
Numerator data elements: | |
Denominator: | Number of separations from state/territory acute admitted patient mental health care service unit(s) occurring within the reference period. |
Denominator data elements: | |
Disaggregation: | Service variables: target population. Consumer attributes: not available. |
Disaggregation data elements: | |
Representational attributes | |
Representation class: | Mean (average) |
Data type: | Real |
Unit of measure: | Time (e.g. days, hours) |
Format: | N[NN].N |
Indicator conceptual framework | |
Framework and dimensions: | Efficiency and sustainability |
Accountability attributes | |
Benchmark: | State/territory level |
Further data development / collection required: | The Admitted patient care NMDS allows length of stay to be calculated for individual hospitals but it does not allow sub-units of individual hospitals (e.g. specialised psychiatric units) to be identified separately. The implication is that average length of stay for specific specialised psychiatric units, acute or otherwise, cannot be directly constructed at a national level from the current NMDS. There are two main approaches that enable construction of the indicator from national data:
Data regarding the type of admitted patient unit would need to be added to the Admitted patient care NMDS. Alternatively, admitted patient unit identifiers that could be linked to data captured in the Mental health establishments NMDS would provide the necessary information. |
Source and reference attributes | |
Submitting organisation: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on behalf of the National Mental Health Performance Subcommittee |
Reference documents: | National Mental Health Performance Subcommittee (NMHPSC) 2013. Key Performance Indicators for Australian Public Mental Health Services, 3rd edn. Canberra: NMHPSC. |
Relational attributes | |
Related metadata references: | Supersedes KPIs for Australian Public Mental Health Services: PI 04J – Average length of acute mental health inpatient stay, 2020 Health!, Standard 13/01/2021 |